Saving New Zealand: 2013

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Lord Wingate's speech on ending bad government and corruption

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Public Figure Christopher Wingate's book "The Art of Getting Rich"-a few sections

Christopher Wingate: Public Figure

Writer, film maker, businessman, social commentator who distrusts 90% of politicians, lawyers and media.

I am in the process of finishing this book. After me it's off to edit then publishing hopefully by mid-2013

Here are a few sample sections from my book- pre edit- draft form

From: Chapter One

Boys I think, try to either emulate their father- or to please them, make them proud. But my father was different. I didn’t want to emulate him and I’m not sure I wanted to make him proud of me. I guess I just wanted to get him to open up and talk with me as his son, to explain his weaknesses, and try to teach me, to warn me of the types of dangers based on his experiences that may lay ahead for me in my life. Some of my childhood memories were not good and for me to write them is difficult. The only love I found in our home was from my mum who tried hard to keep food on the dining room table only to have dad arrive angry which would often led to the dinner table suddenly been turned up sideways flinging our plates across the room. I recall from a young age often being at the end of his rage, and for no real reason. Just silly boy things like throwing dirt off a bank, getting into minor trouble at school or arguing in reply with my older sister.

When you grow up being beaten by a grown man as you lay in your bed, you begin to realise something is wrong. And maybe that is why I sort adventure and advice away from my home.In any relationship often there is a deal breaker and for me the one act that finally sealed the fate of the relationship I had with my father occurred when I was in Rotorua Lakes High School aged about 14.I was called up to the office and standing there was my father. As usual he looked angry and agitated and simply said I had to come home for a family meeting. We lived about 4 km from school and during that drive not a word was spoken.

I walked in the front door, then into the kitchen and laying on the cream lino floor in a pool of blood was my mother. I didn’t need to know how she came to be this way, after seeing it so many times before I knew he had beaten her up.I sat down next to her and gently lifted her head onto my lap and with a wet cloth started to wipe the blood away from her battered face. Not only was this the type of thing no child should ever see, this was an act no man should ever do to a woman, and I felt disgusted with him. But the worst was yet to come.He sat down on a dining room chair fidgeting, looking at me and mum, then looking away he said he wanted to call a family meeting because my mum had got herself pregnant and the purpose of the meeting was to vote that she terminate the baby. I sat there stunned. He had crossed that line in the sand.

I have opened this book with that section because I want you to understand you can make life a success no matter your position. And I guess another lesson is realising the people we meet or see may have walked lives none of us know anything about and that their actions and behaviour may all stem from events well beyond what we may perceive. So in life when you see that person homeless as I once was, never jump to conclusions, they all have their journeys.

Let’s Begin

Here we are, you and I. I sit here writing away, conveying ideas, trusting that they will spark your imagination and inspire you to do great things.

We all have it in us. I would have been the last person to ever be a millionaire by 25 but I did it because of how I look at things. I tend to think our resources for success are our intellectual ability to inspire others and that doesn't require any more than our effort and advertising.

I have come to believe that humans are a bit like computers. Sometimes they work well, but when they screw up you just want to break them. I’m like that not just when I fail but when others fail. I don’t like it when I go faulty but at times I do. I guess the trick is to ensure we learn and don’t repeat them which is hard because humans are creatures of habit.

In planning this book I set myself a task of making sure I wrote a book that delivered a clear picture of what building wealth is all about. As I have put out snippets people have wanted to know will this book make them rich? I guess the best and most honest answer is that it will most certainly help you better preserve what you earn and it’s up to you to get off your butt and just do something, anything involving some form of trade or investment not for the exclusive purpose of making money, but to see how efficient and fast you can become at it familiarising yourself with all the aspects of investing or operating a cash flow business.

You certainly won’t be setting out to lose money. The point of this exercise is for you to start learning about buying, selling, marketing, distributing, manufacturing, costing, reverse engineering, joint partnering, psychology, technology, capital, economics, accounting, government, resources, transport, distribution logistics, law, conmen, arseholes, politicians, lawyers, venture capital, staff, branding, packaging, supply chain, international markets, offshore competitive manufacturing, chemistry, science, media, education, negotiating, macroeconomics, microeconomics, corporate strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship, choices, environment, market change, threshold capabilities, managing people for capacity development, ownership vs lease/borrow, mission and vision statements, gaining competitive advantage, changing rules of the game, market penetration, market resistance or pull, competitive advantage characteristics, social entrepreneurship, liability, trust structures, good worker or manager?, cash flow analysis, capping profits, hedging losses, facing losses and I could go on. But these are what you really start to learn about.

Facing losses October 1987

I thought I would make a brief comment about facing losses. In 1987 just after the stock market crash I re-entered the market to buy about $500,000 worth of two shares. The October 87 crash was a fall of 25% across the board. Everyone was in panic that Tuesday. I think my buying back in was Wednesday morning. It may have even been the following week but it doesn’t matter. Anyhow, I was 26, impulsive and had the feeling of being bullet proof. With the market fall some stocks appeared to be very cheap. So after a short conversation with someone who didn’t know what he was talking about I put in buy orders for 2 mining stocks, one was Forsyth Gold or some name like that, and the other stock I can’t recall the name. Bad investments are to investors like trying to recall the dreadful ugly woman’s name you banged when you were drunk- you just tend to forget as soon as possible.

Over the next two days both shares kept falling and by Thursday I had to make a decision. Hold or sell. Now up till that point most of my decisions were about selling with profits in hand. This was a different animal. Within 2 days of buying those shares, I was staring at losses of around $250,000.

Now you know I often met people who say basically this:

“Well I am waiting for the shares to go back up so I won’t be selling until then- I really should have sold when they were $5 and oh gosh now they are $2.50 but they will go back up and I will just wait.”

Taking a profit is hard, because we think that it will keep going up and if we sell we may miss out on more profit than what we already have. I know I have faced that dilemma maybe 3000 times. I call it “End of play”.

People find it hard to fight that greed instinct of wanting to wait for more or, if the shares fall to wait for them to go back up. Dangerous game is all I can say.

Now if you think that is hard, deciding on waiting for more profit, wait until you are facing a big loss. Capping a loss and making an end of play decision is much more hard than capping your profits believe me. Many more wise traders who I have discussed this with say it’s a time when you realise the size of your balls. You need to fess up to your failure, and make the decision to sell before the market changes yet again.

Now sure it may turn back up- that’s the problem with making these types of decisions. So it’s when you need to be armed with lots of information- actual facts about the company, it’s net tangible assets, it’s earnings, borrowings, market position, quality of management, cash on hand, market perception etc. And of course that is the information you should have before you start buying.

In this case I had neither so given my decision time was now Thursday night I was sitting on a loss of $250,000 created in just 2 days, I was only 26 I knew my next decision had better be a good one. Did I buy more shares or sell? I sold Friday morning as soon as the market opened. By Friday afternoon I saw that if I hadn’t made that decision my losses would have been more than $300,000 and by the end of the next week those losses would have been close to $460,000. A good lesson, I was pleased but annoyed I hadn’t leant a previous lesson of buying into something I didn’t fully understand. It happened earlier in the year.

Baden What?

I got a call from a stockbroker friend David Cleary in early 1987. He gave me a stock code and suggested I take a look. I was on my mobile at the time and failed to get the stock code correct. And so later I typed the code I thought I had heard David suggest- BDE- and up came BADEN PACIFIC LIMITED. Being an idiot with a huge ego and too much money I quickly bought around $200,000 worth. And over the next few days I kept buying noting the shares were going up and I thought yippee- I’m a genius yet again. Then I got a call from my stock broker Steve Wedell who said I needed to sign a substantial shareholders notice. It appeared I was now the largest shareholder in Baden Pacific. Well I hadn’t done that ever before, not of a public listed company. So I signed about 5 different pieces of paper and pondered my greatness.

Then about 20 minutes later David Cleary called me saying he heard my name called out over the announcement system on the stock market trading floor declaring that Christopher Wingate was now the largest shareholder of Baden Pacific with a holding of 13.8%. David then asked- “So what’s Baden about? “ “That’s the company you told me to buy some shares in “I replied. “No! I said BDN you idiot” David said back laughing.

Oh boy what had I done? Within hours the directors of Baden wanted to meet up with me and during that time I began doing what I should have done before buying shares, learn all there was to know about Baden. So before I got to the meeting I realised a few things. Baden did nothing. It was a public listed cash box with around $5m in the bank. Its directors were looking at using it for a fund management company but their backgrounds were hardly exciting. I recall one of the directors had just come off being banned as a director for 3 years. I arrived at an office in North Sydney, walked into a boardroom where a group of cheap grey suits sat around asking my intentions. I just smiled and said something about being happy to just sit there and see what happens. I knew I was among morons better suited to running tap water than an investment company.

A couple of days later, another major shareholder appeared on the share registry. He too was announced over the stock exchange. His name was Michael Maimann. Now this got me curious. You learn in business the only way to stop being curious is to find out what’s going on. So I tracked down his home number and gave him a call. Michael was English, and sounded very much like Yes Man actor Terence Stamp. He laughed when I called him and said he was thinking of doing the same and invited me to his home in the suburb of Waroonga to have a chat.

I had my new silver Mercedes which entrepreneur’s wear like a pharynx symbol, so I felt ready to head onto his private ground. I pulled off the main road headed down what was clearly the nicest street on the north shore. About halfway down I pulled up to the massive gated entrance. I pushed the road side security button and a butler invited me to drive on in after the gates opened. It was like a home from Beverly Hills with manicured landscaped gardens and a massive French provincial style home.

The butler was there to greet me and usher me in to wait for Michael who was in the exotic bird aviary which appeared to be about the size of a tennis court. I didn’t have to wait long before this tall fine looking Englishmen; just like Yes Man’s Terence Stamp came walking over to shake my hand. After the formalities such as getting a drink, taking a seat we got down to talking business.

His first statement was basically- “Chris I would like to support you with my shares, together we can seize control of Baden and then I want you to back your activities into it.”

I just about choked on my drink. What activities I thought. I didn’t have any businesses I was just a property and share investor and a stupid one at that who had bought a pile of shares in a worthless company. But I couldn’t let Maimann know that so I asked him if he was interested in selling his shares. His reply was the same, asked me if I was interested in selling my shares to him.

And so we played with each other each trying to see what the other was up to. All I knew was I had over a million in a company that was worth a fraction of that investment and my only shining light was the unknown intentions of Michael Maimann. But I quickly got the feeling that Maimann didn’t really have a grasp of what Baden was all about. Much the same as he didn’t have any idea of what I did because if he did then he wouldn’t have suggested I back in my activities given I had none.

So the next day I realised I had better formulate an exit strategy that wasn’t going to cost me a large portion of my investment. Sure Maimann had asked me if I wanted to sell to him but that was a fishing exercise and if I had of said yes any perception of value may have been wiped out. So I did the next best thing. Pretend that I was keen on buying more shares and I did this by looking at the top 20 shareholders, had all the telephone numbers of their stockbrokers and at the end of trade called each on to see if their client was interested in selling their shares and at what price.

Stock brokers are like feeder- fish; always looking for something to get a free feed on as the big sharks go hunting and so I knew they would be licking their chops keen to take a position into the play they thought was just about to occur.

And so with all of them primed the first thing I did the next morning was call into another broker of mine, Brent Potts of Potts West Trumbull. I had purchased some of those shares through Potts West who were known as the broker for the powerful and rich. Their private clients were the likes of Kerry Packer and were very selective on who they allowed to be a client. I told Brent I wanted to sell all my Baden holding but that the market couldn’t know it was me. So I asked that he buys some stock through his gate, but sell the total holding via other brokers. That is something that is common to disguise major plays on behalf of big investors. As a major shareholder I was required by law to inform not only the stock exchange but also the share registry and the company if my shareholding position changed either up or down by anything more than a fraction of a per-cent. But I knew if I dumped all my shares on that day then by the time everyone worked out what was going on I would be out sitting at end of play.

So I sat there looking at my Reuters computer screen which my broker allowed me to use and waited for the bell to strike at 10am. It’ a little bit like a horse race, or a boxing fight, things change every minute so you sit there nervously excited wriggling on the edge of your chair. Suddenly the trading started. I didn’t know who was doing what but I could see massive volume in the first hour- the stock was up- then down then up and down it was nail bitting stuff. Only the people on the stock market trading floor would know who the trades were for what broker- they certainly wouldn’t know who the actual people or companies were, but any action from Potts West were clearly Wingate and so from what I heard later everyone was watching to see what Potts were doing. They started off buying but alongside them were other brokers no doubt the feeder fish I had called the night before. Potts used both Ord Minnett and Rivkins to dump my stock and by the end of the day when the 3pm bell went I was out of Baden Pacific which meant my first job was to sign my change of substantial shareholder ‘s notice.

Once I had done that and had a copy of the trade notes I stood up very relieved. I called my wife and together we went out to celebrate at the Regent Hotel bar. Some other people I knew saw us there in a jubilant mood and asked what the celebration was about. “I just lost $80,000.” I yelled over the bar room noise. “Why the hell are you celebrating that?” I was asked. “Because it could have been far worse.” I replied with a grin.

A couple of days later I got a call from Michael Maimann yelling at me. It was not pleasant so I just hung up on him. In 1993 while visiting Sydney I phoned Michael to explain my actions of selling. I told him that I make a mistake in buying into Baden. That being in a hurry and feeling bullet proof I had got the stock codes mixed up. That I had quickly realised my mistake and that when he bought in I wanted to know if he knew something I didn’t. And when I met up with him realised the dog I had invested in was still a dog and I had no choice but to sell. The sad thing for Michael was he was the net buyer of most of my shares on that eventful day. He purchased so many shares he ended up having to launch a full takeover bid of Baden Pacific given there was a sudden realisation by others in the market that the stock was a dog going nowhere. The secret was out. Michael and I chatted and he thanked me for calling suggesting that maybe we could met up sometime. I never did but often wish I had.

From the Chapter: Raising Capital- Making Presentations

1. Prioritise things. Draft a list of what you need to do what you need to say what you need to explain and make sure it’s you are making the best step forward you can. Recall the words of a Tibetan Monk who escaped the invading Chinese army by walking over the snow and ice covered mountains. When asked how he did it, he said "One step at a time"

2. Never give up. But don't keep banging your head against the wall stand back from it and think about all the options. Remember often the wall is an illusionary obstacle. In other words the things that you think are in the way are not really what's stopping you.

And perhaps most important- when someone says no, don't worry about that, perhaps they just don't yet understand. So when someone says no just smile and thank them and introduce some humour in saying something like. “I’ll be back this is too good a deal for you to say no to maybe it’s a wrong day” or” I wore the wrong cloths I needed more colour didn’t I?”

Just say something to lighten up the rejection because from their perspective it’s often uncomfortable for them to turn people down. So by making the situation light and easy they will admire your style and it will give them something to think about for when you redraft your plan and take another shot at getting them on board.

3. The 30 Second Rule. Gerry Spence is perhaps the greatest attorney in legal history -I love Gerry's advice- he once wrote to me saying -

"You must win a jury / an audience in the first 30 seconds or else you will lose". That got me thinking about every form of communication- film making- an essay- media-advertising- the point really gets at the heart of human dynamics.

From the Chapter: Some Good Advice

Wealth is in your heart– not your pocket

Go to the mental toilet- don’t let shit clog your mind

Start gathering and processing information like files on your desktop computer

Help others in need

Don’t worship your possessions

Working for wages is a good start to start to spring from

Seek role models from around the community- mostly business people

Don’t be an asshole- if you are apologise

Nothing really matters in the big picture, worrying is a waste of time and energy

Become a better observer of all the things around you without taking on emotion

Start gaining experience- go to night school- start learning to negotiate by being a tire kicker

Start identifying all the resources around you– ask what do people buy and what do people need –ask what can I find to supply

Lay out your business ideas for unemotional 3rd party self-analysis– play the devils advocate against yourself

Learn to read who and what you are dealing with

Write your ideas down on a business plan

Keep away from businesses with poor reputations when touting your business

Skill doesn't require a university degree, it requires thinking

Apply the hand of friendship when you met people

From the chapter: A Goat and Two Geese

Full-time Arklow lawyer Rodney Newman called up one day saying he was off with his girlfriend Tracy to feed a goat and 2 geese. Tracy looked just like Pamela Anderson so who was Rodney to argue.

Later that day there was discussion about the instructions on the goat being tied up. Rodney insisted Tracy had it wrong and that there was no harm in letting it loose.

Apparently the owner of the goat was a crew member on a mega yacht Lone Ranger and so before the owner flew down from the USA, the crew were taking the boat out for a test run. That guy had asked Tracy to feed his goat and 2 geese with the clear instructions that the goat must remain on the chain.

But Rodney being a lawyer looked over the enclosed yard noting there was no vegetation that the goat could eat– nor any chance of escape so Rodney decided to untie the goat and insisted with Tracy to leave it that way.

The next day Tracy got a call from the owner of the property saying she had better come around. When she got there he took her down the back yard and there was the goat on the ground barely able to move. He demanded to know why she had let the goat off the leash.

Tracy explained Rodney thought it was alright given the yard was enclosed. But Tracy wanted to know what was wrong with the goat.

“He’s fucking stoned the goat has eaten all my prime bud.” He screamed.

A few days later morning media announced a mystery billionaire had flown into NZ to attend the America's Cup yacht race when he was arrested for being in possession of some marijuana. He was arrested at Auckland airport then transported to Otahuhu police station where he slept in a cell on a bunk built into the wall under one blanket after being offered dinner-a microwaved pie and coffee.

The next day he woke up to a breakfast of baked beans and sausages before being walked under escort to the Otahuhu courthouse. His lawyer made an urgent applications to have his name suppressed, but later he was finally named as US billionaire Peter Lewis.

So the story goes, after the goat ate the dope that was destined for Peter Lewis to enjoy while cruising around NZ waters the goat owner told his boss who was still in the USA they have had a disaster with a goat. Lewis simply answered– “No worries I will bring some with me.”

From the Chapter: The Entrepreneur

What separates successful people from unsuccessful people?

Successful people do lots of things and unsuccessful don't do much at all....

So let’s get onto you learning something about business. The word entrepreneur came from the French word entreprendre meaning “to undertake” with "entre" coming from the Latin word meaning "between," and "prendre" meaning "to take." Entrepreneur also sounds close to a sanskrit word antha Prerna which means self-motivation.” Entrepreneurs “undertake” things and they are “self-motivated”.

All of the greatest achievements in business come from the activity of entrepreneurs. In any economy they are the sources of wealth and prosperity. They assume the risk of venture by securing and allocating resources often by shifting assets out of lower productivity into higher productivity. Often they are seen as creators of new business made up by product or service concepts that may have been seen in old factories which are taken over or parallel competed with by destroying the old ways and creating new methods with a modern form to best take advantage of the hunger of consumers seeking out the next best thing.

The main thing I have seen as the defining feature of entrepreneurs is that they start small and build up moving their products or service into unoccupied space. By that I mean they see a demand by a sector of consumers that is not getting what they plan to supply with their new business.

The university qualified manager is a vastly different animal from an entrepreneur. The accountant/lawyer/economist/bachelor of business manager will too often approach simple business tasks the hard way. Whereas an entrepreneur will approach business challenges in a simple and effective way. That’s why with government thinking they will form a committee to work out how the light bulbs will be changed. Whereas an entrepreneur will just go change them. And that is why their growth is far greater than someone with lots of university paperwork to hang on their wall.

From the Chapter: What brings a person success?

I once asked Bob Jones what his early year aims were and did he have happiness once he had got there. I also asked Peter Tapsell and David Lange much the same because in them I saw that their outward appearance of success masked inward demons. I guess most of us suffer that monkey on our back- maybe driven by fear of failure we focus working hard to arrive at an expected reward only to find no pot of gold under the rainbow.

Tim Wilson Policy Director of the Institute of Public Affairs Australia says:

“It's all about attitude. Attitude is central to whether people are successful because it impacts how they see their place in the world and how they approach even the most mundane tasks. It's quite obvious when you think about it. But basically you can approach everything you do in life with different attitudes and a positive one brings optimism and drive to be successful and a negative one the reverse. It then compounds and essentially becomes self-reinforcing. “

Prof Frank Brosnahan WW2 Mosquito pilot & vice chancellor South Pacific University:

"The world is how you see it- see it bad it will be bad- see it good and it will be good - so stop complaining, start smiling and see for yourself, suddenly your day will get better"

Prof Rick Bigwood Law professor at Bond University Australia:

“Richard Kreever's book on Mastering Law Studies is very good on this. The student has to learn study habits that are conducive to learning law (rather than some other subject), and to pay attention to learning the skills necessary to demonstrate one's mastery of the subject. Lots of bright law students can learn a subject well but have terrible exam or problem-solving technique. One has to learn both the content and the skills in order to do well. Most students I have seen improve rapidly in the grades have cottoned on to that reality and put in some effort into improving their skills. “ Wingate- “So can most minds master that method?” Bigwood- “Yes, in time. It comes at different times for different students, depending on how thick they are.” Wingate- “Is there a cure for thick? “ Bigwood- “Yes, choose your parents more carefully. Oh, I guess that's prevention rather than curative.”

Helen Clark Former NZ Prime Minister now head of the United Nations Development Programme:

"I think first that success would need to be defined - is it success in the eyes of others, or success as perceived by oneself. The outwardly successful may be inwardly troubled. If, however, success is to be defined as reaching the goal(s) one has set for oneself, then the first step is to define what the goal(s) is/are, the steps required to achieve it/them, and then the ability to follow through."

Lori Ann LaRocco Producer on CNBC, Author of "Dynasties of the Sea: The Ships and Entrepreneurs Who Expanded the Era of Free Trade" and "Thriving in the New Economy: Lessons from Today's Top Business Minds" Lori has the ear's of some of the world's biggest business minds:

"Success is a state of mind. "Success" is a personal definition because what you might define success is definitely different than someone else. What you need to do is to write down your goal(s) and everything you do is in a step towards to you achieving your goal. A lot of times people think success has a monetary value attached. It doesn't. Success in the end should equate to happiness. If you love what you do, you work hard and have the passion you need in order to obtain the success you want. I also think too often in our lives we get so caught up with the next thing to do we forget to savour our achievements."

From the chapter: Your Body and You

If you want life to feel better you need to be fit. Success is not just cash wealth it’s making both your body and mind happy. And you can’t do that sitting around watching TV or being on the computer all day. Likes the age rings that grow each year in a tree, in your cells there are things called telomeres and each year and each period of stress on either your mind or body those things grow longer and they have an effect on your body. Telomeres have been compared with the plastic tips on shoelaces because they prevent chromosome ends from fraying and sticking to each other. This is where you grow old right here in each telomere. The longer they grow the less you will live. But it’s been proven you can repair them with immediate results.

There are around 100 trillion cells in your body made up of around 300 different cell types. They are like micro engines each with their own powerhouse that burn fuel carried by your blood. That is what makes your body warm and when they die that is why your body is cold.

The engineering mechanics of cell metabolism is the process by which individual cells process nutrient molecules. Metabolism has two divisions: catabolism, in which the cell breaks down molecules to produce energy, and anabolism, in which the cell uses energy to create complex molecules to perform other biological functions. Complex sugars consumed by the organism can be broken down into a less chemically complex sugar molecule called glucose. Once inside the cell, glucose is broken down to make adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a form of energy, through two different pathways. The first pathway, glycolysis, requires no oxygen and is referred to as anaerobic metabolism. Each reaction is designed to produce some hydrogen ions that can then be used to make energy packets (ATP). In prokaryotes, glycolysis is the only method used for converting energy. The second pathway, called the Krebs cycle, or citric acid cycle, occurs inside the mitochondria and can generate enough ATP to run all the cell functions. Cells are capable of synthesising new proteins, which are essential for the modulation and maintenance of cellular activities. This process involves the formation of new protein molecules from amino acid building blocks based on information encoded in DNA/RNA. Protein synthesis generally consists of two major steps: transcription and translation. Transcription is the process where genetic information in DNA is used to produce a complementary RNA strand. This RNA strand is then processed to give messenger RNA (mRNA), which is free to migrate through the cell. mRNA molecules bind to protein-RNA complexes called ribosomes located in the cytosol, where they are translated into polypeptide sequences. The ribosome mediates the formation of a polypeptide sequence based on the mRNA sequence. The mRNA sequence directly relates to the polypeptide sequence by binding to transfer RNA (tRNA) adapter molecules in binding pockets within the ribosome. The new polypeptide then folds into a functional three-dimensional protein molecule. Cells can move during many processes: such as wound healing, the immune response and cancer metastasis. For wound healing to occur, white blood cells and cells that ingest bacteria move to the wound site to kill the microorganisms that cause infection. At the same time fibroblasts (connective tissue cells) move there to remodel damaged structures.

Now I included that information from Wikipedia on cells to remind you your body actually has some shit going on that requires some assistance from you. Taking drugs, smoking (particularly smoking), too much booze, junk crap sugar loaded fatty food, inactivity, stress are all things that will lengthen those telomeres, screw up those cells that are trying to do their best to keep you healthy. It’s a small trade-off- is it not, to simply make some small changes that will make you feel better and help you live longer?

Science has proven that by feeding your body with well-being both physical and mental. Some people nourish their system with prayer to god; others meditate, while others saturate their body with a happiness of success with loving the small things and never worrying about anything really.

My advice, is if you are not feeling well and stuck in a cycle of couch and TV, just start moving even while sitting there. Start couch exercises lifting your legs/feet up, start doing body crunches get your body moving. For add breaks on television jump up and do a workout. On a computer whenever you are watching video- waiting for a page to load jump up and get moving.

I have at times of being both mentally and physically unwell and what has made me better is by pushing myself. You simply must do those stretching exercises you see the lads in the military doing, go for brisk walks, in the deep end of the pool gentle and quick swimming keeping your feet at all times off the bottom- that works wonders, pushing pulling twisting your body with weights, sit ups, hitting the workout bag in 2 minute bursts repeated in multi sets ducking and weaving like you are in the ring, cutting down on any and all junk food. Get rid of coke and sugar water, cut out regular tea, coffee only have say 1 a day and replace them with herbal teas.

Stop eating protein with carbohydrates- potato and meat because the enzymes in your digestive system produced to absorb these two foods with clash with each other causing a toxic build up that will drain your body. Try salad or vegetables only with steak or chicken- no potatoes and see how much better you feel.

There is no other trick for better wellbeing and if you are reading this book eating junk food thinking the magic formula just for you will be found in here that excludes what I suggest you are wrong. Believe me I have searched and searched for a lard arse journey to success and it’s simply not there.

Start moving brother- get that body and mind feeling stronger today and continue each and every day. To repair and shorten those telomeres face that rising sun like some budda and breath calmly as you let that energy flow. You can do this at any time of the day or night. I sometimes do it under the night moon or stars. I do it as often as I can and move my hands like in tai chi movements to help re-balance the electromagnetic bio-flows that surround my body. I don’t have a clue how they work I just know I feel so much better after. You are you must realise an actual electrical field surrounds your body like a moving glow caused by trillions of atoms each of which were other things over billions of years before they became part of you. You are in thought, purely a host to a much more complex system called your body, so look after it and it will look after you. Remember that focus and commitment along with hard work is the investment from which all else flows.

A separate project is the making of a Michael Moore type documentary called "Idiots In Power"

This is a sample from the Documentary Synopsis:

On the morning of July the 7th 1999, Sonny Tawhiao was on his way to report tribal corruption worth more than $100m. He never made it off Matakana Island. Police would later claim after he left his two young sons at home at 7.45am he then drove into the Matakana forest.

There they claim he took a can of petrol from his boot, removed his green knitted top and boots and set them on fire at the rear right wheel of his blue Mazda. While that was burning police suggest he then poured petrol under the car up the left side and throughout the interior. They then claim he put the can back into the boot, got into the backseat and set himself on fire. Yet, the Bic lighter was found at the right rear wheel on top of the burnt boots and green knitted top.

So what was the full story?

In 1992 a Wellington Merchant asked Rotorua businessman if they could help fund his purchase of Matakana Island. After getting the A-Z blue print of how Wingate had put the deal together the bank loved the deal so much they went behind his back and did the deal for themselves cutting Wingate out.

The Wingate/ Arklow Investments plan was

Arklow had negotiated for $20m to purchase Matakana Island's 10,000 acres of freehold land, pine forests, sawmill and transport system. Arklow had an agreement with Kanematsu Japan for them to purchase the 17-34 year pine forest cutting rights at a price between $13-15.75m. That Arklow needed a loan of around $5m to complete the deal. That the loan would be paid back from the sale of the 1-16 year forest and or other surplus assets and the security for the loan were to be the 10,000 acres of land, the 1-16 year forest, the sawmill and the transport system. That Arklow then intended developing the 10,000 acres of land into16,000 houses+ producing a minimum profit of $3.43b.

Instead of offering the loan funds Arklow was seeking, FAR Financial asked Arklow for $5000 to look for the money but Arklow rejected the idea which resulted in FAR Financial cutting out Arklow and negotiating to purchase Matakana Island for themselves. They offered the 17-35 year forest to ITT Rayonier for $15.6m, $150k less than Arklow's deal with Kanematsu. Documents later showed Far Financial were insolvent and on the point of collapse. They then stole the Arklow Wingate deal.

In March 1993 Arklow began litigation against Far Financial

In April 1994 Far Financial got the Wellington High Court permission to sell the 10,000 acres of land to Te Kotukutuku (TKC). TKC supported by the Ngai Te Rangi executive claimed the land was sacred, must never be developed and must be in the hands of Maori. The affidavits from the various leaders of Matakana Island Trust, Te Kotukutuku, Tauranga Moana Trust Board and Ngai Te Rangi Iwi or Iwi chartered accountant Graeme Ingham never mentioned in any of their affidavits or pleadings to the court that they were shareholders in Te Kotukutuku. Iwi lawyer David Baragwanath QC knowingly gave the High Court false submissions. (Found in October 94 after discovery of the TKC/ Iwi documents)

In June 1994, the Court of Appeal overturned the validation but allowed the parties to keep their monies and asset positions until the case was heard against Far Financial. Arklow now had 17 defendants.

Arklow Wingate High Court Win

On 5 May 1997, one month after the 4 week trial, Justice Paul Temm found in Arklow's favour in its claim against FAR Financial. The judgement was crystal clear laying out all the facts and the law. Then just 3 weeks later on the 25th of May, Justice Paul Temm suddenly died.

In June 1998, four of the five judges overturned the findings of Justice Temm. In the submissions TKC had asked the Appeal Court to ignore any possible wrongs FAR Financial may have committed because the sacred land was now in the hands of the Maori people of Tauranga. The judgment against Arklow Wingate was pure fiction where neither the facts not the law were correct. Something was going on.

Now TKC were rich on paper but Matakana Island indigenous Waitangi claimant Sonny Tawhiao suspected the tribal leadership were trying to steal the Matakana Island land assets for themselves. He called Mr Wingate seeking information and was provided with documents that exposed blatant corruption. Mr Tawhiao immediately began to lobby his people. In July 1999, Mr Tawhiao's burnt body was found in the back seat of his car.

In December 1999, Arklow Wingate lost at the Privy Council with a judgment written by NZ judge Justice John Henry. Again the facts and the law were incorrect. TKC had again also asked the Privy Council to ignore any possible wrongs FAR Financial may have committed because the sacred land was now in the hands of the Maori people of Tauranga.

In July 2007, Te Kotukutuku announced it had completed sale of all of the Matakana land to property developers for around $100m. None of the money went to the tribe; it all went into the pockets of the leaders.

So who was this Wellington Merchant Bank?

Owned by Mr Ian Smith whose former business partner is barrister John Eichelbaum, son of Sir Thomas the former New Zealand Chief Justice. John Eichelbaum's partner- Sir Geoffrey Palmer, former Prime Minister, Minister of Justice and former head of the Law Commission. After the Privy Council win, Mr Smith set up Lombard Group Ltd where Sir Douglas Graham, former Minister of Justice, Attorney General, Minister in charge of the Serious Fraud Office was appointed along with the Hon. W.P. (Bill) Jeffries another former minister of Justice. In 2008 Lombard collapsed costing investors more than $125m.

Other issues

Privy Council decision was by Justice John Henry a 30-year friend and business partner of Galbraith QC, the counsel for the defence.

The Privy Council was aware Lord Cooke withdrew in the weekend leading up to the Privy Council trial admitting he had a holiday house at Lake Taupo next door to a director of FAR Financial.

Justice Greig accepted the submissions made by Mr David Baragwanath QC on behalf of his Maori clients and allowed Far Financial to sell the Matakana land to Baragwanth's clients. Shortly after Baragwanath was appointed a High Court judge and President of the Law Commission. Discovered documents subsequently exposed that Mr Baragwanath knew that what he was putting forward to the High Court was completely false and misleading.

Patricia Fordyce a lawyer working for ITT Rayonier told Sir Peter Tapsell and Wingate that her manager of ITT Rayonier Charles Margiotta had given the court false evidence.

Parliament Inquiry

In mid-2003 Justice Select Committee member Russell Fairbrother LLB MP offered Wingate a petition to parliament to set up an inquiry into the Arklow case. Mr Fairbrother stated the Privy Council and Court of Appeal decisions were obviously wrong in law and fact and that Wingate would succeed with the Select Inquiry and knew the "club of Judges" were mates. After those comments were passed on to Auckland lawyers Rodney Newman and Bob Stevens during a lunch in Parnell Mr Stevens became angry suggesting Mr Fairbrother should shut his mouth and that those in his position who made such comments about Judges would have their kids killed.

On August 25, 2003, Mr Fairbrother’s grandchildren eight-year-old twins Hannah and Jessie MacDonald died in an explosion in Oliphant Place, Hastings. An inquiry failed to find the cause of the explosion.

So what can be done to end endless corruption and negligence?

This is a world-wide problem. The purpose of this documentary is to example how total power corrupts and to remind the public they actually own government, and it is a trust structure controlled by politicians we appoint through elections therefore we need to demand new rules of employment. The key message we push is that until we have "Fiduciary legislation" adopted into law we will continue to have human rights breached simply because the existing crown immunity will allow the abuser the legal power either to cause or ignore the suffering.

Politicians are public relations manipulators. They secretly lobby each other for power and privilege, enjoy the benefits of public office then retire leaving us the tax payers the bill and the mess to deal with. They are crushing democracy, they are being driven by big business, and other hidden powers, and the 99% have had enough. However, asking the politicians to rectify the problem will fall on deaf ears.

So Wingate has devised a plan

Crown Immunity could be forcibly backdoor implemented on politicians via their political parties who decide party policy. The idea would be to lobby the public and existing members and get them to flood these meetings proposing new party rules regarding the removal of immunity and the introduction of fiduciary law. Once it is party policy, then it’s a short step to legislation.

Several years in the making this documentary will attempt to be the catalyst to modernise democracy.

Seen politicians screaming like idiots in parliament lately- do people behave like that in company boardrooms?

Company directors, doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, fund managers are all accountable to negligence claims-so why aren't politicians accountable given they can do the most damage to society?

Conned by politicians, judges, corruption, bad policy, red tape, sale of state assets or favourable legislation to wealthy bankers' et al, after they gave your politicians donations?

You, me, us in our communities, we technically own government. So start today by writing, talking this over with others, share this concept and start pushing for introduction of Fiduciary Legislation and removal of both Crown and Judicial immunity.

That will then allow any claims of breach of fiduciary duty by any legal person including judges, attorney general or politician, to be heard by a jury. Then we will have some control of idiots in power.

Government is a trust structure owned by the public- why do the public allow politicians a free rein to mess things up and just experiment with us?

The NZ Herald Interview

Chris Wingate - A Kiwi in Australia

By Dwayne Alexander

If you have seen the film "Once Were Warriors" that was how Christopher Wingate grew up. The difference was his parents were white and the house a bit more flash. But all the other dynamics existed in Rotorua in the 1960's.

He knew from a young age he wanted a different life and so instead of spending his days hanging around the Western Heights shops he spent it in the bush or wondering around some of the tourist businesses talking with the owners.

"Each Friday night we would have fish and chips- one piece of fish each. The others would hog their piece of fish but I would focus on the chips knowing my fish would be there long after they had scoffed their fish. I guess then I knew I was different"

Married 28 years with 4 kids, Chris was a self-made millionaire by the age of 25. He has lived in Australia, New Zealand, Vancouver and Hawaii.

In 1997 he funded Auckland school kid Scott Dixon to race Formula Holden then the following year he set up Scott Dixon Motorsport to fund Scott's racing career. In 2003 Dixon won the Indy Racing world title in his first attempt and then in 2008 won the Indy 500 and the Indy World Title.

No stranger to adventure himself, in 1999 Chris shipped a 4wheel drive to India and drove to London with Sir Peter Tapsell and Prof. Frank Brosnahan via India, Pakistan, Iran, Syria Jordon, Lebanon, Turkey etc.

He is currently filming a movie called GOVERNMENT, a 9/11 type film about what he calls "idiots in power."

What Drives Chris?

HOME TOWN- Rotorua (now lives in Australia)

HOBBIES- Reading, writing, painting, sculpture, poetry, cooking, studying humans, bush walks, humanities, law, nano technology, CERN, design, playing the piano, didgeridoo

LIFE GOAL

To make politicians and judges accountable by getting the public to help remove Crown and Judicial Immunity. Our political systems of managing our countries are a failure. We really need to separate the nice smiling people from the constructive ones. Our politicians and judges want mana and prestige which they prioritise over the more important responsibility of being the most important fiduciaries in the world. If any other fiduciary fails they only harm a few. If our politicians and judges fail they can and unfortunately do ruin the entire nation.

My Favourite Time of the day is...(and why)

Being woken by our pet birds at 5am. Here in Australia when you go outside the sound of the forest all around us is just coming alive like an orchestra.

I really enjoy… My family and seeing others succeed in life.

List a few of your recent accomplishments that you are proud of:

Picking my sorry self up out of New Zealand after losing the Matakana litigation, coming back to Australia to start again from scratch. But my greatest success has been seeing my children being successful.

Did you celebrate them- How?

Every day we talk about their objectives and goals. I tell them I am proud of them and encourage them to keep moving forward

I am busy at the moment doing:

We are currently filming a movie called GOVERNMENT, a 9/11 type film about idiots in power.

My big hairy audacious goal this year is to:

Lose weight and get really fit, and be a better father and husband.

I knew I was onto something when:

I realised intention was the prerequisite of doing.

My secret for getting things done is to:

Prioritise things. Draft a list of what I need to do. I recall the words of a Tibetan Monk who escaped the invading Chinese army by walking over the snow and ice covered mountains. When asked how he did it, he said "One step at a time"

My darkest hour was when:

I lost the Matakana Island litigation at the Privy Council. I had won the 4 week trial in the NZ High Court - the defendants were clearly guilty and all the documents and cross examination proved that. Then the Court of Appeal changed the facts and ignored others, I was shocked democracy could be so negligent or corrupt. The Privy Council were supposed to be the beacon of intelligence so when they rejected my appeal I just went blank.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The story behind the Matakana Island litigation is covered in this Scoop article. Chris Wingate has also set up a website about the venture.

What do you do when things aren't going your way?

Never give up. But I don't keep banging my head against the wall I stand back from it and think about all the options. But the key is never, never give up the objective. And often the wall is an illusionary obstacle. In other words the things that you think are in the way are not really what’s stopping you. And perhaps most important- when someone says no, don't worry about that, perhaps they just don't yet understand.

I came through it by:

On the flight back sitting in first class talking with a Chinese businessman from Singapore we started talking about what we did. I explained I had just lost a court case and began talking about it all. I started showing him some photographs of Matakana Island from my briefcase and among those photos were pictures of my family and our home, while looking at them I realised my family were about to lose their home as we had put everything into the litigation. Suddenly I found myself crying.

The Singaporean man put his hand over to mine and said " Maybe I don't know how bad things are for you but I want to consider this, imagine if you were on this flight for a different reason, imagine if one of your family had been killed and you were flying back to New Zealand for that reason, you would be here right now praying to god he take everything you own in exchange for that family member to be alive again. Money is not as important as family that is your priority and that is your wealth and reward". I got off the plane with a smile and my family needed that.

What would do if you were not …

If I didn't do what I did I would love to be a postman. What a lovely calm life that would be.

What do you do to cope with stress?

As I have got older I cope better. Often I think of planet earth flying past in space and when I think of it from out there I remember whatever my problems are they really don't matter in the big picture.

How many hours do you work each week?

I guess I seldom stop if you consider thinking through things as work. The issues I am working on are huge. Everyone is caught up with the current system of political management but that system is failing and they know it. So where my mind is most hours of the day is reforming political management. By that I mean getting better performance from those who say to society "trust us with managing your society" The human apathy, technical, logistical and media obstacles in that are enormous and require endless thinking in order to hatch a plan to win. And I don't plan on losing the world can't afford that.

What is the most important piece of advice you'd give to people who are struggling to create a positive change in their lives?

You should never struggle to make a positive change because being alive is the most positive thing and with that whatever you think is getting you down is really not important in the scheme of things. People I come across who are in a rut are nearly always holding onto the rut like a blanket.

What is the hardest lesson you've had to learn in life?

Realising titles create the illusion ability exists. Learning to struggle with intelligent people in government power who have little or no common sense. Experiencing government incompetence- among the drowning flood of silence.

What separates successful people from unsuccessful people?

Successful people do lots of things and unsuccessful don't do much at all. But success is in the heart not in the wallet. I know plenty of people with money but I only know a few of them with happiness. A friend of mine who taught swimming to the rich in Beverly Hills once said "The only happy people in Beverly Hills were the staff"

Do you have any daily rituals that help you keep focused and in the right mental state to succeed?

Go go go !!! Life is short. And remember the problem with doing nothing is you don't know when you are finished. So get off your bum and do something.

Do you have any school/study qualifications?

Dropped out at 15 with no educational qualifications but an attitude of I can do anything and I knew I wanted to see the world and be a success at whatever I did.

What are the three most important personal qualities you've had to develop to become a CEO?

I am still learning I don't think you ever stop that. But if I had my time over again the rules from the start would be - never lie, never steal, never do anything that wounds your soul, respect others, work hard and never give up.

What are the three most important skills that you would advise up and coming youngsters to develop?

Never do anything wrong that you can't come back from. Pay your bills. Talk about your objectives and explain how you require relationships in order to meet those objectives. In doing that everyone knows where you want to go and what part they can play in it. But for those who have tried and have failed, remember to rebuild to last we must be aware why we failed.

Who inspires you the most and why?

Firstly my wife. The greatest human I have ever known. If the world was seeded from her this would be a wonderful planet with wonderful people. There would be no wars and no problems.

But apart from her, Sir Peter Tapsell. He was a raised without shoes in a poor family. But his hard work and sense of drive led him to the top of sport, medicine and politics. Then in retirement he has found total happiness in saddling up his horse at 5am and riding into the hills to fix a fence, move livestock around. Peter lives life by looking forward, he never looks back. He is perhaps New Zealand's greatest son. I love the man dearly.

Do you have a formal goal setting process?

First goal is being able to see it and keeping your eye on it. When I was 18 Reg Ansett founder of Ansett airlines asked me if I could shoot a target at 50 yards on a barn door. When I said yes he then asked if I thought I could beat the world’s best shooter to which I said no. He then said if you put a blindfold over the champion shooters eyes you could beat him. The lesson was it does not matter how much talent you have, if you can't see the target anyone can beat you. So if you want to hit a target you have to take off the blind folds in order to see the target. I have often thought about that. The blindfolds come in many forms with comments like you can't do that, you're too young, too old, it's too expensive, too hard, too far. Just focus on the target and don't let people put blindfolds on you.

Have you ever been scared to .........? What did you do about it?

I am not scared of anything which scares the hell out of those who travel with me. When my son was 8 we were screaming along on one hull out of the water on Lake Rotorua in our catamaran one cold windy winter's day. He was crying scared we would tip over and he would drown. I said to him if he feared dying and was hanging on doing nothing about it then would it not be better for him to try managing the event rather than being a passenger. He got the message and soon was helping me control the boat. That was one of his most important life lessons.

What comes first...success or confidence?

Confidence, you must have confidence about your plan. And as soon as you have confidence you have become more successful than those with money and no confidence. I recall an old Italian guy who owned a timber yard in Sydney talking about a young lad working for him who had just won lotto. He said "Everyone is saying he's rich. But he's not rich his heart, his soul is poor, he will never be rich."

The Parting Shot:

When I feel frustrated that things are not coming together as I wish, I proceed to... Again I look at the objective I am chasing and review the bridges and steps I am making to get me there. If you plant seeds, it's only one good seed that may count.

But perhaps the most important thing I recall is something I wrote at the Privy Council in London. "The cost of failure is experience, but the cost for not trying is your soul"

"Once Were Warriors" with Pot only ?

Imagine the film "Once Were Warriors" re-shot this time removing all the alcohol and replacing it with marijuana. Jake the Muss would be hugging everyone and endless munchies for food. Yet alcohol is legal and marijuana illegal.
I did a report a few years back when a friend was charged with trying to procure cocaine and I found statistics from the UK that showed no one died from pot about 7 from cocaine yet millions died from legal cigarettes and alcohol.

Complaints about Susan Devoy being appointed Race Relations Boss

Complaints about Susan Devoy being appointed Race Relations Boss....
Now, how many politicians have destroyed NZ and did you vote for them or complain?
How many politicians are good in the current government line up ?
Name any NZ politicians with talent?
So why do you all carry on about Susan Devoy who was world champion several times- has given her life to helping people through various charities-is extremely bright and hard working-great mother, wife and community citizen..... like what damage could she do to our nation even if she did screw up ah ?
Just shut the fuck up and let her do her job and start complaining about the real issues the real people destroying New Zealand ya dickheads.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Please Urgently Share- Conned by politicians?

Seen politicians screaming like idiots in parliament lately- do people behave like that in company boardrooms?
Question
Company directors, doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, fund managers are all accountable to negligence claims-so why aren't politicians accountable given they can do the most damage to society?
Conned by politicians, judges, corruption, bad policy, red tape, sale of state assets or favourable legislation to wealthy bankers et al, after they gave your politicians donations?
You, me, us in our communities, we technically own government. So start today by writing, talking this over with others, share this concept and start pushing for introduction of Fiduciary Legislation and removal of both Crown and Judicial immunity.
That will then allow any claims of breach of fiduciary duty by any legal person including judges, attorney general or politician, to be heard by a jury. Then we will have some control of idiots in power.
Government is a trust structure owned by the public- why do the public allow politicians a free rein to mess things up and just experiment with us?
Start today- share this message.

Campaign promoter Christopher Wingate

Our documentary on corruption and cover-ups
http://lawisanass-wingate.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/idiots-in-power-documentary.html

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

2013 ACT Annual Conference John Banks

Leader's Address

2013 ACT Annual Conference

ACT Leader Hon John Banks

I’m excited by the challenges and opportunities for our Party and for our country.

An academic once wrote:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.”

I am honoured to be here amongst a group of like-minded individuals who change worlds in their own lives.

Alan Gibbs – thank you for your staunch support of ACT and for welcoming us to your wonderful Farm.

New Party President, John Boscawen; former President, Chris Simmons; ACT Board members both retiring and new; ACT Members and visitors – thank you for your commitment and service to ACT.

Our mission and our challenge is to return a bigger, refreshed, revitalised and re-tooled ACT Party to Parliament in 2014.

I am a born optimist. I have always believed in the power of individuals to make a difference in their own lives, and the lives of others.

For me it is not what government can do for you.

Rather, it’s about what you should be free to do for yourself while respecting the freedoms of others.

At its most basic, that is what ACT Party stands for.

The seeds of my philosophy are found in my background and life experience.

At primary school, hunger set the initial course of my life; I decided that I would never go hungry again.

My first teacher at Clareville School taught me that I could be successful if I was prepared to work hard.

I believed then as I do now, that through enterprise, initiative and hard work, every citizen should have the freedom to achieve.

ACT stands for a New Zealand where even the poorest child from the most humble background should be able to get ahead.

We believe that the law should treat everyone as equal. We believe in upward social mobility through the freedom to achieve.

We stand four-square against the entitlement society.

The entitlement society is the notion individuals are entitled to live at the expense of everyone one else; that a state benefit is a right, not a privilege; that the recipient owes nothing in return to the society that provides that benefit.

Fifty years in business and thirty years of elected office has taught me that not every economic and social ill can be addressed by creating a government programme or passing yet another law.

After all, a government big enough to give you everything you want, is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.

My experience is that laws and government programmes almost always have unintended consequences.

For example, welfare programmes designed to afford independence more often than not, create dependence.

Universal benefits intended to help those who are most in need, are offered up to those who neither need nor value them.

The entitlement society empowers politicians and civil servants and disempowers individuals and families.

It destroys the belief that individuals and families can and should be able to get ahead through their own efforts.

Take housing.

We face a housing affordability crisis in Auckland.

First home buyers face housing costs almost as unaffordable as London.

It is a problem largely created by former governments through the RMA and building regulations.

Now, according to Labour and the Greens, a government created problem requires a government ‘soviet style’ housing solution.

Young people would be expected to queue up for a house chosen by David Shearer and Russel Norman.

Unfortunately Mr Shearer’s promised dream home price rose from three hundred thousand dollars to half a million in a couple of months. That is inflation of Banana Republic proportions.

Worse than queuing for one of Dr Norman’s chicken coops is that he is promising to build these fowl houses with printed money.

Labour’s solution is even worse. You won’t fix the problem of the artificial scarcity of land at its source by throwing $30 billion at one symptom.

There is not a squeak, NOT A SQUEAK, from either Labour or the Greens on the need for Resource Management Act reform to address the causes of the problem.

I have told the National Party that we have a one in 20 year opportunity to fix the RMA.

The truth is, it is now working in the opposite way to what Parliament intended.

The RMA that promised so much has delivered so little.

The RMA is the epitome of a law with unintended consequences.

The original 382 pages were intended to replace 59 Acts of Parliament.

We were told it was supposed to free up development.

We were told it was supposed to bolster the fundamental freedom to build.

And we were promised simplicity.

Twenty-three years later, it is a 900 page job destroying machine.

The RMA is now one of the major constraints on investment, growth and employment.

It is now a significant cause of the housing unaffordability. It is used to constrain the supply of land thereby creating a massive transfer of wealth from first home buyers to those who already own consentable land.

The ACT Party agrees that we need to reform the timeframes in the Resource Management Act as National has proposed.

But we need to go further, much further, if we are serious about housing affordability.

And the ACT Party is serious about housing affordability.

We need to reverse the anti-development and anti-subdivision presumptions of the RMA in favour of the freedom to build on one’s own property. And we need much less prescriptive plans.

ACT’s Freedom to Build policy is our contribution to the housing affordability debate. It would do much to return the RMA to what Parliament originally intended.

The Freedom to Build is a presumption that you can develop your property if you respect the like rights of your neighbours.

This will increase the supply of land that can be built on.

The result would be that young people would be free to achieve home ownership if they are prepared to work hard and save hard.

In a property-owning democracy the role of government is not to build houses.

Let me tell you about three other areas where ACT is making life better for New Zealanders.

I believe in inspirational leaders. Our Partnership Schools will empower the parents of our most vulnerable learners by giving them more choice.

We will open the door of opportunity by providing a world class education to everyone, including the poorest of families and the most vulnerable of learners.

Partnership Schools will give dedicated educators the flexibility and freedom to meet the individual educational needs of their students.

In return for this freedom, there will be a higher level of accountability for the results they achieve.

Our critics don’t understand that ACT has always championed choice in education.

We have always wanted to empower parents by having the funding to follow the child.

We believe in choice.

ACT’s Aspire Scholarships introduced last term allow poor kids from low income families to go to private schools.

Partnership Schools will begin first school term next year.

As a former General Secretary of the UN has said…

“Literacy is… the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential.”

ACT agrees with that totally.

ACT will give dedicated and inspirational educators the tools they need, so that all of our young can walk the road of progress; so all have a real opportunity to achieve their potential.

I want to thank Catherine Isaac and the Working Party she leads for the excellent policy work they have done and continue to do.

ACT’s Regulatory Standards proposal will help New Zealanders to better scrutinise legislation for both intended and unintended consequences. It will create a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all critical information about a government Bill and will help New Zealanders push back on poor laws.

This Bill is a useful first step, but ACT would like to go much further by passing the Regulatory Standards Bill which would test legislation against a set of principles including better protection of private property rights.

ACT believes in private property rights.

For that to happen we will need to be back in Parliament in 2014 in larger numbers.

ACT’s spending cap proposal will require politicians to adopt a spending trend-line with a ‘please explain’ requirement for spending above that line. New Zealanders will be better able to judge the quality of government spending and the future cost of current programmes.

That will help better with decision making on Election Day.

Election campaigns are marathons not sprints.

Success in 2014 depends on what we do today, this week, this month, this year.

The campaign ahead will test our mettle, the commitment to our values and what we stand for and stand against.

Some in the media and our opponents will write us off. That’s nothing new. They did that in 2011. They did that in 2005. They did that in 1996.

That’s because the choice of Government; the choice of Prime Minister will likely depend on us.

Never in my lifetime has the Opposition been less ready to govern.

Never has the opportunity to keep nudging the National Party toward our values been more important.

Nor has the risk been greater that MMP will deliver us Russel Norman and his printing press.

Voters will clearly know what we stand for. And what we stand against. ACT’s values have not changed from the values its founders stood for. And they are not going to change.

ACT’s values are timeless.

We stand against heavy tax burdens to fund wasteful and unnecessary spending.

We stand against the stifling of freedom, enterprise and initiative with red tape.

We stand against attitude that the government must do something every time something bad happens in the community.

We stand against privilege

We stand against corporate welfare in all its forms.

Most of all, we are against entitlement. The notion that people are entitled to live at the expense of everyone else.

We stand for the dignity of the individual.

We stand for preserving the freedom to achieve.

We stand for allowing individuals to pursue goals of their own choosing.

We stand for individual initiative and enterprise.

We stand for personal responsibility, including responsibility for losses.

We stand for choice through open, competitive markets.

We stand for free trade.

We stand for price stability.

We stand for smaller government and lower taxes.

We stand for equal citizenship.

We stand for government that excels in performing its core functions.

We stand for government welfare that gives people a hand up not a hand out.

These propositions express our values. They are timeless.

What’s more they are right for the times we live in.

I want you to know that together we can and will make a difference – in taxation, welfare, law and order, equal citizenship, red tape, fiscal discipline and in education.

I want you to decide that our values are worth your effort over the next 21 months.

ENDS

ACT's Freedom To Build Policy document can be found here <http://www.act.org.nz/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=11711&qid=1480138>

Media Contact: Shelley Mackey, Press Secretary, 04 817 6634/ 021 242 8785

(shelley.mackey@parliament.govt.nz) <mailto:shelley.mackey@parliament.govt.nz>

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